Sometime in the two weeks before the UN climate conference in Durban, the
world passed $1 trillion mark in clean energy investment since 2004. That’s a
trillion dollars in solar and wind power plants, in bioenergy production
facilities, in smart meters and smart grids, in assets, public markets,
research and development.

Even for the energy world, it’s a big number, and one that grew quickly. The
world invested $52 billion in clean energy in 2004, and $243 billion last year.
That’s a 29 percent compound growth rate, sufficient for total yearly investment
to double in less than three years. It’s capital deployment that has increased
every year even with tremendous macroeconomic headwinds and uncertain policies
in Europe and the US. Last year’s $243 billion is right about halfway to the
yearly investment which Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates is necessary to
slow climate change.

As important is where money is flowing. In 2004, that money was almost
entirely European. When it came time for us to identify the trillionth dollar,
we found that it went into a basket of projects all over the world: biomass in
Brazil, wind in China, solar thermal in Morocco, electric vehicles in the US,
even a solar system in Tonga. It is a global game now.

One of the analyst’s tricks of the trade is the ability to make any number
seem large or small. Here’s how to make a trillion dollars seem small: as we’ve
just added the seven billionth person to the world last month, we now have
deployed $142.86 per person on earth into renewable energy.

That’s 43.6 gallons of Regular Unleaded gasoline at today’s national average
prices.

That’s 20.6 steak burritos at your favorite chain.

That’s 1.4 30-day unlimited passes on the New York City subway system.

Can the world afford another trillion dollars in clean energy investment? It
will require some skillful unlocking of capital, and a great deal of
coordination. And even as energy ministers and the punditocracy cannot help but
despair just a bit at the intractability of the climate negotiations process, a
trillion dollars speaks louder than a UN plenary address.